Literature for young adults, which has undergone significant changes in the last few decades and continues to evolve rapidly, is increasingly accompanied by Internet materials which attempt to fulfill a variety of purposes. The overall purpose of this qualitative study was to develop an understanding of middle years teachers’ and students’ responses to these printed and online texts. This research explored the nature of the online content being created and the usefulness of Genette’s (1997) concepts of paratexts in understanding these materials, as well as the responses of middle years teachers and students to a selected set of novels and the online content related to those novels. A collective case study approach was used to probe the responses of four teachers and six students from four mid-sized western Canadian cities. Data were collected through in-person and Skype interviews and through written response journals. Within-case and cross-case analysis occurred using thematic coding methods. Themes were identified in both the students’ and teachers’ responses, and these themes were observed to align in six significant ways. Both teachers and students agreed that audio and visual materials online may evoke a strong response and that the opinions and ideas of other readers are interesting and influential. The teachers predicted and the students confirmed that their response to the websites was largely determined by their response to the printed texts. The two participant groups both indicated that they viewed the printed texts as of primary importance and that the content of the websites had the power to change their thinking about those texts. Finally, both teachers and students described a tendency to make quick decisions about their interest in the content of a website. Implications for pedagogy include the need for educators to investigate these online materials and to consider students’ out-of-school literacy skills and preferences in order to make intentional, informed decisions about their use in the curriculum. Recommendations for future research include the exploration of a wider range of printed and online texts, examination of the responses of students from different age groups to these texts, and investigation of the impact of participation in the book-related websites on adolescents’ identity development. / Graduate / 0727

Inconsistencies in alcohol use measurement across studies and broad conceptualizations of post-secondary education experiences of young adults impede the comparison of research findings and our understanding of age-related shifts in alcohol use during emerging adulthood. This dissertation uses data from the Victoria Health Youth Survey (V-HYS), a 5 wave longitudinal study following 662 Canadian youth across the ages of 12-27. Study 1 examined the longitudinal associations among four measures of alcohol consumption (frequency, quantity, frequency of heavy episodic drinking and volume) from ages 15-25 and compared the ability of these measures to predict alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood. Levels and rates of change across alcohol dimensions were moderately associated over time. However, measures of alcohol involvement significantly differed in their average rate of growth and in the prediction of alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood. Heavy episodic drinking and volume showed the strongest associations in developmental trends and were similarly predictive of alcohol-related problems. The findings from this study support using measures of heavy episodic drinking or volume for assessing alcohol use and alcohol-related problems during emerging adulthood. Building on Study 1, Study 2 compared the trajectories of heavy episodic drinking during adolescence and emerging adulthood among youth in four different educational pathways: two-year college students, four-year university students, transfer students, and terminal high school graduates. This study also examined whether individual level factors could account for group differences in heavy drinking among the education groups. Terminal high school graduates consistently had the highest levels of alcohol use over time compared to all three post-secondary groups. Two-year college students had significantly higher levels of heavy drinking than university or transfer students when they enrolled, but university students had the greatest increases in heavy drinking after enrollment. However, differences in heavy drinking between post-secondary groups were completely accounted for by variations in the age at the time of enrollment. Taken together, the current findings illustrate that enrolling in post-secondary education, regardless of the type of institution, is associated with an increase in the frequency of heavy drinking during emerging adulthood and that this increase is greatest for younger students. However, the rates of drinking never exceeded that of the terminal high school graduates over time. These studies illustrate that the conclusions drawn about alcohol use trends during emerging adulthood may be contingent on the alcohol consumption measure used and conceptualizations of educational experiences. The results of the current studies provide recommendations to researchers about which measures of alcohol involvement to select for inclusion in future studies, and inform the optimal timing, targets, and contexts for alcohol prevention and intervention efforts during emerging adulthood. / Graduate / 0620

Uppsatsens syfte ämnar undersöka svenskars benägenhet att välja en utrikes född partner utifrån individers bostadsort samt deras egen och föräldrars utbildning. Valet av partner analyseras utifrån ett perspektiv där valet inte sker slumpmässigt utan styrs av faktorer som påverkar möjligheterna till vilken partner svenskar träffar. Tidigare forskning har främst studerat parförhållanden mellan olika minoritetsgrupper och minoriteters tendens att ha en inrikes född partner. Eftersom parförhållanden mellan majoriteten och minoriteterna anses vara en indikator på hur starka gränserna är mellan olika grupper i samhället, är det av sociologiskt intresse att också studera hur majoritetsgruppen väljer en partner från minoritetsgrupper. Teoriavsnittet beskriver inledningsvis begreppen endogami, homogami och exogami som olika former av parförhållanden för att sedan diskutera hur svenskars partnermarknad påverkas av deras socioekonomiska resurser och sociala kontext. Datamaterialet som används i studien kommer från SUDA:s undersökning Young Adult Panel Study från år 1999 och studiens urval består av individer födda i Sverige av svenskfödda föräldrar som vid undersökningstillfället var i ett parförhållande. Logistisk regressionsanalys är den metod som tillämpats för att analysera svenskars benägenhet att ha en utrikes född partner. Studiens resultat indikerar att föräldrars utbildning, till skillnad från respondenters egen utbildning, hade en betydande effekt på benägenheten att ha en partner som är född utomlands. Det visar också att svenskar som bor i storstäder är mer benägna att ha en utrikes född partner i jämförelse med de som bor på landsbygden. Samspelet mellan individers socioekonomiska bakgrund och sociala kontext kan således påverka vilken partnermarknad som är tillgänglig för varje individ och är därmed avgörande för svenskars benägenhet att ha en utrikes född partner.

This document contains a creative work – the text of a young adult novel, The girl and the sea – and an exegesis examining the MySpace Generation through the methodological prisms of online ethnography and literature review.

The original thesis contains the novel "Stranger, I" as an integral part of the thesis. However this novel has been omitted in this digital copy. / Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2006. / Bibliography: p. 93-97. / On divergence in fantasy -- Introduction -- Preliminary -- The thousand and one definitional nights -- Characteristic works: inclusions and exclusions -- Critical objections to fantasy -- Conclusion. / On Divergence in Fantasy explores the ways in which fantasy criticism continually redefines its boundaries, without arriving at agreement. The paper draws on Foucault to suggest that these disputes and dispersions are characteristic of the operation of fantasy critisim as a discursive formation. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 97 p

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 76 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1995. / Includes tables. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Florence McCarthy. Dissertation Committee: Allayne Sullivan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-164).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 58-59)

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-65).